Request By:
Betty A. Springate, Esq.
General Counsel
Kentucky Labor Cabinet
The 127 Building
U.S. Highway 127 South
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
Delores Pregliasco, as a representative of the estate of John L. Pritchard, has appealed to the Attorney General your denial of her request to inspect all records involving the report of the Labor Cabinet, OSHA Branch, relative to the incident involving the death of John L. Pritchard. The specific records requested are described as three employee interview statements.
In your letter of September 21, 1984 to Delores Pregliasco, you informed her that the three employee interview statements would not be released for public inspection as they are exempt from release pursuant to KRS 338.101(1)(a) and KRS 61.878(1)(j). You cited OAG 83-140 and OAG 83-335 in support of your position.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that you acted in conformity with the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870 to KRS 61.884, in denying access to those records in your file containing the statements of the three employees made to OSHA Compliance Officers in private interviews. In OAG 82-192, copy enclosed, we cited KRS 338.101(1)(a) which authorizes the Commissioner or his authorized representative:
"To enter without delay and advance notice any place of employment during regular working hours and at other reasonable times in order to inspect such places, question privately any such employer, owner, operator, agent, employee, employee's representative, and investigate such facts, conditions, practices, or matters deemed appropriate to determine the cause of, or to prevent the occurrence of, any occupational injury or illness." (Emphasis supplied.)
We further stated in OAG 82-192 that it is our opinion that the term "question privately" makes any statement taken from an employee confidential and, therefore, exempt from mandatory public disclosure by KRS 61.878(1)(j). That statutory section states that public records or information, the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by an enactment of the General Assembly, are excluded from the application of KRS 61.870 to KRS 61.884 and shall be subject to inspection only upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
We are also enclosing copies of OAG 83-335, OAG 83-140 and OAG 83-5, and of which involve the Labor Cabinet and the denial of the inspection of the type of records and materials involved in this case.
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requesting party who has the right to challenge it in court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5).